# Wildcard

Matching strings to wildcards pattern is useful and often needed. Using regular expression may help, but is not a top performance solution. `Wildcard` class matches strings to wildcard patterns using `*` and `?` characters, and that does very fast and good!

### Matching strings

Here are some examples:

```java
Wildcard.match("CfgOptions.class", "*C*g*cl*");         // true   
Wildcard.match("CfgOptions.class", "*g*c**s");          // true!   
Wildcard.match("CfgOptions.class", "??gOpti*c?ass");    // true   
Wildcard.match("CfgOpti*class", "*gOpti\\*class");      // true   
Wildcard.match("CfgOptions.class", "C*ti*c?a?*");       // true
```

### Matching file paths

`Wildcard` class supports path matching wildcards. It matches path against pattern using `*`, `?` and `**` wildcards. Both path and the pattern are tokenized on path separators (`\` and `/`). `**` represents deep tree wildcard, as in Ant.

```java
Wildcard.matchPath("/foo/soo/doo/boo", "/**/bo*");          // true
Wildcard.matchPath("/foo/one/two/three/boo", "**/t?o/**");  // true
```

### Wildcards in Jodd

Wildcard matching is used in many places in *Jodd*. As the general rule-of-the-thumb, everywhere where file paths are involved in scanning and matching, the `matchPath()` method is used, otherwise, the classic `path()`.


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